UP revokes Durga Shakti Nagpal's suspension

Indo Asian News Service

22 September 2013

Lucknow, Sep 22 (IANS) Almost two months after suspending her for 'dereliction of duty', the Uttar Pradesh government Sunday revoked the suspension order of probationary IAS official Durga Shakti Nagpal.

The IAS official was serving as sub-divisional magistrate (SDM), Sadar of Gautam Budh Nagar when the Akhilesh Yadav government suspended her July 27.

Nagpal, along with her husband Abhishek Singh, also an IAS officer had called on the chief minister Saturday and sought to "settle the issue".

She is reported to have apologised to Akhilesh for the "lack of foresight while settling administrative issues".

While officially the state government had maintained that the 28-year-old official was suspended because she ordered razing down of an under-construction mosque wall, it was widely perceived she was suspended for her pro-active role in taking on the illegal mining mafia.

She was served a charge sheet following her suspension and she submitted a written reply Aug 16.

The government had then rejected her reply and set up a high-level one-man probe committee under principal secretary R.M. Srivastava asking him to look into the allegations against Nagpal and submit a report.

The move to suspend Nagpal had created a national furore and the image of the chief minister took a beating.

Surfacing of a video in which Samajwadi Party leader Mahendra Bhati bragging of getting Nagpal suspended in 41 minutes had further dented the image of the state government, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi also wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking his intervention in the matter.

The all-India IAS Association had also sided with the suspended official and sought the intervention of the union government and demanded the official be reinstated.